Turn a plate over and you will often find a mark stamped, printed or scratched into the base: a crown, a few letters, a small anchor, a line of country wording. Brooches, spoons and vases carry them too. The mark says who made the piece, and roughly when and where. Reading it is the hard part. The reference material is spread across dozens of hobby and museum sites, each organised its own way, and most assume you already know the maker's name. That is usually what you are trying to find out.

So we built Marks & Signatures , a free site for identifying maker's marks, hallmarks and signatures on pottery, silver, jewelry and glass.

What it does

The antique mark identifier starts from what you can see, not from a name:

A photo. Upload, drop or paste one, then crop and rotate it to the mark.

What you can read. Type letters, a word or a short description such as "crown + Bavaria" or "blue anchor". Partial letters are fine.

Details you can pick.…